The S&P/ASX 200 index was 0.25 percent, or 15 points, higher at 6,131.2 at 0313 GMT. The U.S. market was lifted by healthcare shares.

Miners BHP and Rio Tinto climbed more than 1 percent each, in line with iron ore’s move higher on Friday.

Westpac Banking, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank were up between 0.3 and 1.3 percent, while ANZ was the index’s biggest drag, down 2.3 percent as shares traded ex-dividend.

Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said the market’s modest gains were “impressive” considering that a major bank was trading ex-dividend.

CBA, embroiled in a series of scandals and criticised during an inquiry into the financial sector, appointed a new chief financial officer on Monday.

Shares of Australia’s largest wealth manager AMP Ltd , which fell to near 7-year lows on Friday, regained some ground on Monday.

The stock was up 3.5 percent, but that was pared to 2.1 percent after rating agency Moody’s said AMP’s governance failures as revealed by the Royal Commission inquiry into the financial sector were “credit negative”.

On Friday, Macquarie flagging downgraded AMP to “neutral” from “outperform”.

Telstra shares were the second biggest drag on the index, down 4.4 percent, posting their biggest one-day drop in nearly 8-1/2 months, after the company warned that fiscal 2018 earnings would be at the bottom end of guidance and that it expects challenging conditions to continue in 2019.